Bromus hordeaceus |
Bromus vulgaris |
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brome mou, lesser soft brome, lopgrass, soft brome, soft chess |
Columbia brome, Columbian brome, common brome |
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Habit | Plants annual or biennial. | Plants perennial; not rhizomatous. | ||||||||||||
Culms | 2-70 cm, erect or ascending. |
60-120 cm, erect or spreading; nodes (3)4-6(7), usually pilose; internodes glabrous. |
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Sheaths | pilose or glabrous; auricles absent; ligules 2-6 mm, glabrous, obtuse or truncate, erose or lacerate; blades 13-25(33) cm long, to 14 mm wide, flat, abaxial surfaces usually glabrous, sometimes pilose, adaxial surfaces usually pilose, sometimes glabrous. |
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Panicles | 1-13 cm long, 1-4 cm wide, erect, usually ovoid, open, becoming dense, occasionally reduced to 1 or 2 spikelets; branches shorter than the spikelets, ascending to erect, straight or almost so. |
10-15 cm, open; branches ascending to drooping. |
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Spikelets | (11)14-20(23) mm, lanceolate, terete to moderately laterally compressed; florets 5-10, bases concealed at maturity; rachilla internodes concealed at maturity. |
15-30 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, terete to moderately laterally compressed, with (3)4-9 florets. |
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Glumes | pilose or glabrous; lower glumes 5-7 mm, 3-5-veined; upper glumes 6.5-8 mm, 5-7-veined; lemmas 6.5-11 mm long, 3-5 mm wide, lanceolate, chartaceous, antrorsely pilose to pubescent, or glabrous proximally or throughout, 7-9-veined, lateral veins prominently ribbed, rounded over the midvein, hyaline margins abruptly or bluntly angled, not inrolled at maturity, apices acute, bifid, teeth shorter than 1 mm; awns 6-8 mm, usually arising less than 1.5 mm below the lemma apices, straight to recurved at maturity; anthers 0.6-1.5 mm. |
glabrous or pilose; lower glumes 5-8 mm, 1(3)-veined; upper glumes 8-12 mm, 3-veined; lemmas 8-15 mm, lanceolate, rounded over the midvein, backs sparsely hairy or glabrous, margins usually coarsely pubescent, sometimes glabrous, apices subulate to acute, entire; awns (4)6-12 mm, straight, arising less than 1.5 mm below the lemma apices; anthers 2-4 mm. |
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Caryopses | equaling or shorter than the paleas, thin, weakly inrolled to flat. |
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Lower | sheaths densely, often retrorsely, pilose; upper sheaths pubescent or glabrous; ligules 1-1.5 mm, hairy, obtuse, erose; blades 2-19 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, abaxial surfaces glabrous or hairy, adaxial surfaces hairy. |
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2n | = 28. |
= 14. |
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Bromus hordeaceus |
Bromus vulgaris |
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Distribution |
AK; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DE; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MO; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; WA; WI; WY; HI; AB; BC; LB; NB; NS; NT; ON; QC; YT; Greenland
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CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC
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Discussion | Bromus hordeaceus is native to southern Europe and northern Africa. It is weedy, growing in disturbed areas such as roadsides, fields, sandy beaches, and waste places, and can be found in many locations in the Flora region, with the exception of the central Canadian provinces and most of the southeastern United States. Its origin is obscure. Ainouche et al. (1999) reviewed various suggestions, and concluded that at least one of its diploid ancestors may have been an extinct or undiscovered species related to B. caroli-henrici, a diploid species. The four subspecies are usually morphologically distinct. Ainouche et al. (1999), however, found no evidence of genetic differentiation among them. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Bromus vulgaris grows in shaded or partially shaded, often damp, coniferous forests along the coast, and inland in montane pine, spruce, fir, and aspen forests, from sea level to about 2000 m. Its range extends from coastal British Columbia eastward to southwestern Alberta and southward to central California, northern Utah, and western Wyoming. Varieties have been described within Bromus vulgaris; because their variation is overlapping, none are recognized here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 232. | FNA vol. 24, p. 216. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Bromeae > Bromus > sect. Bromus | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Bromeae > Bromus > sect. Bromopsis | ||||||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Synonyms | B. mollis | B. ciliatus var. glaberrimus | ||||||||||||
Name authority | L. | (Hook.) Shear | ||||||||||||
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